No matter that in the last fortnight or so the United States Supreme
Court issued two resounding, humiliating, unanimous
rebukes to the Obama Administration, rejecting as clear violations
of the First Amendment (freedom of religion) and the Fourth
Amendment (freedom from unreasonable search) Mr. Obama's claim to be
able to dictate to a Lutheran church and school (Hosanna-Tabor) just
who it might be that they could hire or fire, as well as his assertion
of a right to subject an American citizen to prolonged electronic
surveillance without a warrant (United States vs. Jones). The Obama
Administration, self-assured for all of that, saw fit to issue on
January 20th a brand-new imperious decree to the effect that all religious corporations that do not confine their services exclusively to members of their own
confession MUST provide their
employees with health insurance that includes payment for contraceptive
medications (including those that are likely to induce an abortion such
as ella and Plan B) and for
sterilization procedures as well, even if providing such coverage would
constitute a flagrant repudiation of the religious institution's own
fundamental principles. The PRIMARY
target here (but by no
means the only target) is the Catholic Church, and the
ultimate goal can plausibly be construed as the DESTRUCTION
of Catholic schools and colleges as well as Catholic social agencies,
almost none of which confine their services exclusively to those of the Catholic
Faith. This tsarist ukase from
Mr. Obama's Health and Human Services Department constitutes an
outrageous and UNPRECEDENTED
self-insertion of the federal government into the internal affairs of
religious institutions and as such is an EGREGIOUS VIOLATION OF THE FIRST AMENDMENT.
IT IS, AN OPEN DECLARATION OF WAR AGAINST THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN AMERICA
as well as against individuals and organizations of ANY AND EVERY religious denomination
that is resolutely PRO- LIFE. Pending an ultimate decision by the federal
Supreme Court on this most recent and most insolent subversion of
freedom of religion and freedom of conscience mandated by the Obama
Administration, our bishops corporately and individually have called
upon America's Catholics NOT SIMPLY TO ROLL OVER AND DIE IN THE FACE OF
THIS ASSAULT UPON A CONSTITUTIONALLY GUARANTEED LIBERTY BUT TO STAND UP
AND FIGHT with the weapons that the American Constitution provides -
principally the right to VOTE in national elections. In the meantime we
can let our representatives in Congress know in no uncertain terms that
we VIGOROUSLY OPPOSE THIS LATEST IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PROGRAM,
ANNOUNCED BY PRESIDENT OBAMA shortly after his inauguration, to, in his
own words, "FUNDAMENTALLY TRANSFORM" America.

It is now quite clear that what Mr. Obama has in mind allows little
room for freedom of religion and freedom of conscience.

May I share with you here the splendid statement issued by
Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York, who as
President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops speaks in
the name of all of America's Catholic Bishops.

Religious freedom is the lifeblood of the American people,
the cornerstone of the American government. When the Founding Fathers determined that
the innate rights of men and women should be enshrined in our
Constitution, they so esteemed RELIGIOUS liberty that they made
it the first freedom in the
Bill of Rights.

In particular, the Founding
Fathers fiercely defended the right of conscience. George Washington
himself declared: "The conscientious scruples of all men should be
treated with great delicacy and tenderness; and it is my wish
and desire, that the laws may always
be extensively accommodated to
them." James Madison, a
key defender of religious freedom and author
of the First Amendment, said: "Conscience is the most sacred of all
property."

Scarcely two weeks ago, in its Hosanna-Tabor decision upholding
the right of churches to make ministerial hiring decisions, the Supreme
Court unanimously and enthusiastically reaffirmed these longstanding
and foundational principles of religious freedom. The court made it
clear that they include the right of religious institutions to control
their internal affairs.

Yet the Obama administration has
veered in the opposite direction. It has REFUSED TO EXEMPT RELIGIOUS
INSTITUTIONS THAT SERVE THE COMMON GOOD-including Catholic
schools, charities and hospitals - from its sweeping new health-care mandate that
requires employers to purchase contraception, including
abortion-producing drugs, and sterilization coverage for their
employees.

Last August, when the
administration first proposed this nationwide mandate for
contraception and sterilization coverage, it also proposed a "religious employer"
exemption. But this was so narrow that it would apply only to religious
organizations engaged primarily in serving people of the same religion.
As Catholic Charities USA president, the Rev. Larry Snyder, notes: even
Jesus and His disciples would not qualify for the exemption in that
case, because they were committed to serve those of other faiths.

Since then, hundreds of
religious institutions, and hundreds of thousands of individual
citizens, have raised their voices in PRINCIPLED OPPOSITION to this
requirement that religious institutions and individuals violate their
own basic moral teaching in their health plans. Certainly many
of these good people and groups were Catholic, but many were Americans of other faiths, or no
faith at all, who recognize that THEIR beliefs could be NEXT on the
block. They also recognize that the cleverest way for the government to
erode the broader principle of religious freedom is to target UNPOPULAR
beliefs FIRST.

Now we have learned that those loud and strong appeals were IGNORED.
On Friday, the administration reaffirmed the mandate, and offered only
a one-year delay in enforcement in SOME cases - as if we might suddenly
be more willing to violate our consciences 12 months from now. As a
result, all all but a few employers will be forced to purchase coverage
for contraception, abortion drugs and sterilization services even when
they seriously object to them. All who share the cost of health plans
that include such share the cost of health plans that include such
services will be forced to pay for them as well. Surely it violates
freedom of religion to force religious ministries and citizens to buy
health coverage to which they object as a matter of conscience and
religious principle.

The rule forces insurance
companies to provide these services without
a co-pay, suggesting
they are "free - but it is naïve to believe that. There is no free
lunch, and you can be sure there's no free abortion, sterilization or
contraception. There WILL be a source
of funding: YOU.

Coercing religious ministries
and citizens to pay DIRECTLY for actions that violate their teaching is
an UNPRECEDENTED incursion into freedom of conscience. Organizations
fear that this unjust rule will force them to take one horn or the
other of an unacceptable dilemma: STOP serving people of ALL faiths in
their ministries - so that they will fall under the narrow exemption -
or STOP providing healthcare coverage to THEIR OWN employees.

The Catholic Church
defends religious liberty, including freedom of conscience, for
everyone. The Amish do not
carry health insurance. The government respects their principles. Christian Scientists want to heal by
prayer alone, and the new health-care reform law respects that Quakers and others object to
killing even in wartime, and the government respects that principle for
conscientious objectors. By its
decision, the Obama administration has FAILED to show the SAME respect
for the consciences of CATHOLICS and others who object to treating
pregnancy as a disease.

This LATEST erosion of
our first freedom should make all Americans pause. When the government tampers with a freedom
so FUNDAMENTAL to the life of our nation, one shudders to think WHAT
LIES AHEAD. [Emphasis added].

*
*
*
* *

Even the Catholic left, which in
2008 had been deployed so effectively as cheerleaders for the Obama
campaign, is upset. William McGurn, a brilliant (and devoutly Catholic)
commentator for The Wall Street
Journal, had this to say in his paper's edition of January 24,
2012.

*
*
*
* *

Obama Offends the
Catholic Left William
McGurn The Wall Street Journal,
January 24, 2012

When Barack Obama secured his party's nomination for president in 2008,
one group of Democrats had
special reason to cheer. These were Democrats who were reliably liberal
on policy but horrified by the party's sometimes knee-jerk ANIMOSITY TO
FAITH. The low point may have been the 1992 Democratic convention.

There the liberal but pro-life GOVERNOR
OF PENNSYLVANIA, Bob Casey Sr., was humiliated when he was DENIED a speaking slot [in a
convention held in Philadelphia the
major population center of his own state] while a pro-choice
Republican activist from his home state WAS allowed.

With Mr. Obama, all this looked
to be in the past. In 2006, the Illinois senator delivered a speech
declaring that "secularists are wrong when they ask believers to leave
their religion at the door before entering the public square." He
followed up by appearing at fund-raisers for the anti-abortion Bob
Casey Jr. during Mr. Casey's successful run for Sen. Rick Santorum's
senate seat.

Sen. Casey went on to co-chair
Mr. Obama's National Catholic Advisory Council. Sixteen years
after the snub to his dad, he was given a prime-time speaking slot at
the 2008 Democratic convention. And
Mr. Obama would go on to capture a majority of the Catholic vote.

Now, suddenly, we have headlines about the president's "war on the Catholic Church." Mostly
they stem from a Health and Human
Services mandate that forces every employer to provide employees with
health coverage that not only covers birth control and sterilization,
but makes them free. Predictably, the move has drawn fire from
the Catholic bishops.

Less predictable - and far more interesting - has been the heat from the Catholic left,
including many who have in the past given the president vital cover. In a post for the left-leaning National Catholic Reporter, Michael
Sean Winters minces few words. Under the headline "J'ACCUSE,
" he rightly takes the president to the woodshed for the
politics of the decision, for the substance, and for how "shamefully" it treats "those Catholics
who went out on a limb" for him.

The message Mr. Obama is
sending, says Mr. Winters, is "that there is NO ROOM in this great
country of ours for the institutions OUR Church has built over the
years to be Catholic in ways that are important to us."

Mr. Winters is not alone. The
liberal Cardinal Roger Mahony, archbishop emeritus of Los Angeles,
blogged that he "cannot imagine a more direct and frontal attack on
freedom of conscience"-and he urged people to fight it. Another
liberal favorite, Bishop Robert Lynch of St. Petersburg, Fla., has
raised the specter of "civil disobedience" and vowed that he will drop
coverage for diocesan workers rather than comply. They are joined in their expressions of
discontent by the leaders of Catholic Relief Services and Catholic
Charities, which alone employs 70,000 people.

In the run-up to the ruling, the
president of Notre Dame, the Rev. John Jenkins, suggested a modest
compromise by which the president could have avoided most of this
strife. That would have been by allowing the traditional exemption for
religious organizations. That's the same understanding two of the
president's own appointees to the Supreme Court just reaffirmed in a
9-0 ruling that recognized a faith-based school's First Amendment right
to choose its own ministers without government interference, regardless
of antidiscrimination law.

A few years ago Father Jenkins took enormous grief when he invited
President Obama to speak at a Notre Dame commencement; now Father Jenkins finds himself publicly
disapproving of an "unnecessary government intervention" that puts many
organizations such as his in an "untenable position."

Here's just PART of what he
means by "untenable": Were Notre Dame to drop coverage for its 5,229
employees, the HHS penalty alone would amount to $10 million EACH YEAR.

The irony, of course, is that the ruling is being imposed by a
[nominally] Catholic Health and Human Services secretary, Kathleen
Sebelius, working in an administration with a Catholic vice president,
Joe Biden. A few years back the voluble Mr. Biden famously threatened
to "shove my rosary beads" down the throat of those who dared suggest
that his party's positions on social issues put it at odds with people of faith.
Does he now mean to include Mr. Winters, Cardinal Mahony and Father
Jenkins?

Catholic liberals appreciate
that this HHS decision is more than A RETURN to the HOSTILITY that sent
so many Catholic Democrats fleeing to the Republican Party these past
few decades. They understand that if left to stand, this ruling
threatens the religious institutions closest to their hearts-those
serving Americans in need, such as hospitals, soup kitchens and
immigrant services.

Conservatives may enjoy the problems this creates for Mr. Obama this
election year.

Still, for those who care about issues such as life and marriage and
religious liberty that so roil our body politic, we ought to wish
Catholic Progressives well in their intra-liberal fight. For we shall
never arrive at the consensus we hope for if we allow our politics to be divided
between a party of faith and a party of animosity to faith.
[Emphasis added].